OTIS Grand, the gentle giant of the blues, will fill the Deep Blues Club in York on Tuesday.

The club usually operates on a monthly basis but is delighted to be hosting next week's Grand occasion at the Post Office Club, in Marygate, less than two weeks after the visit of Doug Jay.

Grand was born in 1950, one of seven children. None of his family was musical, so his only exposure to music in his Californian childhood came through listening to his father's Nat King Cole records. He first picked up a guitar in 1963, influenced by the instrumental bands of the time - The Ventures, Dick Dale et al - and his subsequent love affair with the blues was fuelled by hearing BB King and Albert King on the Bay Area black radio stations. Named Otis by Chicago singer and guitarist Eddie Ray in the 1970s, Grand first moved to Europe in 1977 and settled here permanently after marrying a Welsh girl in 1985.

"Playing big-band city blues gave me the opportunity to start the one and only real blues band in the style of BB King and Johnny Otis in England," he recalls. King, his childhood hero, later told him: "You play like I used to when I was young."

On the road, Grand is accompanied by vocalist 'St Louis' Jimmy Thomas, who has worked with John Lennon and The Rolling Stones, plus keyboard player Matt Foundling, bassist Stuart Penniman, drummer Dean Beresford, trumpeter Mike Peake and tenor saxophonist Paul Corry.

On Tuesday, doors will open at 8pm and admission is £9.50, £9 for concessions and CIU members.

Updated: 15:43 Thursday, September 02, 2004